The Pearson Institute Research and Innovation Fund

Each year, The Pearson Institute’s Research and Innovation Fund provides grants to University of Chicago faculty and PhD students conducting research on global conflict. Studies must be rooted in innovative, data-driven research that seeks to understand and reduce global conflict and demonstrates public policy impact.

Researchers awarded a Pearson Grant explore topics that are regionally and topically diverse, each with a focus on using quantitative social science to advance the study of conflict and the potential to advance public policy involving global conflict.

The Pearson Institute Research and Innovation Fund 2023 Awardees


2023 Awardees

Ari Anisfeld and Pepi Pandiloski

PhD Candidates, Harris Public Policy

Social Learning in Segregated Networks

Maria Angélica Bautista

Senior Research Associate, Harris Public Policy

Elements of an African Theory of International Relations

Raman Chhina and Varun Kapoor

PhD Candidates, Economics

Persistence of Political Conflicts: Evidence from Resettlement in East Punjab

Hope Dancy

PhD Candidate, Political Science

Colonial Agreements Project

Shanon Hsuan-Ming Hsu

PhD Candidate, Economics

Industrial Policy, Firm Ownerships, and Ethnic Inequality in Malaysia

Luis Martinez et al.

Assistant Professor, Harris Public Policy

Bourbon Reforms and State Capacity in the Spanish Empire

Jose Miguel Pascual Moreno

PhD Candidate, Harris Public Policy

Labor Unions and Mechanization

John Henry Murdy

PhD Candidate, Political Science

How International Criminal Organizations Consolidate Power: A Crisis in Ecuador

Raul Sanchez de la Sierra and Soeren Henn

Assistant Professor, Harris Public Policy; Lecturer, New Castle University Business School

Challenging Territorial Conceptions of the State: The Bandits Own Perspective

Daniel J. Sonnenstuhl

PhD Candidate, Harris Public Policy

The Causes and Implications of the Pentecostal Movement: Evidence from Nigeria

Madeleine Stevens

PhD Candidate, Political Science

Annihilating “Subversives” and Dehumanizing “Delinquents”: Enforced Disappearance from the Cold War through the War on Terror 

Maya Van Nuys

PhD Candidate, Political Science

Policing the International: IOs in the Production of Global Policing Norms

Rebecca Wolfe

Senior Lecturer, Harris Public Policy

Reducing Violence Versus Building Trust: Exploring the Joint Effect of Top-down and Bottom-up Peacebuilding Interventions


2022 Awardees

Michael Albertus

Associate Professor, Department of Political Science

State-Building, Long-Term Development, and Rural Stability in Peru

Maria Angélica Bautista

Assistant Professor, Harris Public Policy

Where Does Power Lie? Women’s De Jure and De Facto Political Power and Female Empowerment in Eastern Nigeria

Shanon Hsuan-Ming Hsu

PhD Student, Department of Economics

Industrial Policy, Firm Ownerships, and Ethnic Inequality in Malaysia

Varun Kapoor

PhD Student, Department of Economics

The Social and Economic Consequences of Peasant Rebellions in India

Ben Lessing

Associate Professor, Department of Political Science

Dynamics of Crime and Public Policy Under Prison-Based Criminal Governance

Zikai Li

PhD Student, Department of Political Science

Interethnic Complementarity and Conflict in British Malaya

Ramzy Mardini

PhD Candidate, Department of Political Science

Rebel in Society: Social Networks, Wartime Consolidation, and the Emergence of the Islamic State

Laura Montenegro Helfer

PhD Candidate, Harris Public Policy

Setting the Foundations for Apartheid: Market Access and the Rise of Afrikaner Identity

Estéfano Rubio

PhD Candidate, Department of Economics

Optimal Redistribution of De Jure and De Facto Political Power: A Mechanism Design Approach, Evidence from Labor Unions

Raúl Sánchez de la Sierra

Assistant Professor, Harris Public Policy

Morality, Violence, and Opportunism: Inside the Nduma Defense of Congo Militia

Noah Schouela

PhD Candidate, Department of Political Science

The Politics of Urban Social Topography in Latin America

Madeleine Stevens

PhD Candidate, Department of Political Science

Habeas (Non) Corpus: Enforced Disappearance and States' Repertoires of Repression

Nicolás Torres-Echeverry

PhD Student, Department of Sociology

Party Decay and the Reconfiguration of Electoral Competition under Conflict

Andres Uribe

PhD Candidate, Department of Political Science

Coercion and Democratic Capture in Mexico

Maya Van Nuys

PhD Student, Department of Political Science

Policing the International: Policy Diffusion and the Postcolony

Rebecca Wolfe

Senior Lecturer, Harris Public Policy

Reducing Violence versus Building Trust: Exploring the Joint Effect of Top-down and Bottom-up Peacebuilding Interventions

Previous Awardees